Independent Patient-Centric Medical Data Bank Unveiled

Revolutionary New Service Centralizes Personal Medical Information and Gives Control of Access to Patients

Dallas, TX, Feb. 16, 2005 -- At the Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Annual Meeting in Dallas, MedCommons Inc. launched a new product that will forever change for the better the way patients take responsibility for their own medical care. The MedCommons Patient Data Bank, a new national patient-centric PHI storage and retrieval system, marks a bold step in the evolution of healthcare. MedCommons isolates and controls patients’ private health information as they make choices in hospitals and insurance plans in the same way that a bank account keeps private assets safe and secure. The MedCommons ensemble of technologies for independent and vendor-neutral patient information management introduces the industry’s first document gateway and diagnostic image-viewer software to receive FDA clearance as Open Source Software.

Until now, proprietary medical records were inaccessible to the patient and an unreimbursed expense to the provider. Adrian Gropper MD, Chief Science Officer for the MedCommons Patient Data Bank, said, “The launch today of our national online service solves several age-old problems. First, it embraces portability. A patient’s complete medical history will now be easily accessible at the click of a mouse from our secure website (www.medcommons.net). Second, it is cost-effective. The patient pays only for banking their private information, while the provider enterprises purchase information technology as they would any other infrastructure. Third, and most importantly, it separates the patient’s interest from the provider’s and puts the sum total of a person’s medical history and data in control of the patient, not managed health care.”

Technological advances in diagnostics, pharmaceuticals and minimally-invasive techniques are stressing the ability of regulators and patients alike to cope with a flood of information and a growing range of choices. Comparing alternatives and getting the best advice requires that all of the relevant information be painlessly available to all of the physicians and caregivers that the patient might choose. Building on Integrating the Health Care Enterprise (IHE) best practices, MedCommons technology synchronizes standard PHI documents (DICOM, CCR, PDF) between providers and the PHI bank daily or on demand. Referrals and second opinions are as simple as paying a bill.

Bill Donner, CEO of MedCommons said, “In a dynamic and increasingly complex health care environment, MedCommons is uniquely independent. Think of the MedCommons Patient Data Bank as you would an online brokerage account. Very sensitive and private information is held securely by your broker, and similarly, by MedCommons. Only with your permission can data be added or viewed.” Donner added, “Our business will succeed only if it keeps the trust of patients and physicians. Since we are neither a provider nor a payor, our success rests solely in our ability to protect the consumer’s privacy and self-interest.”

Curtis Cole MD, Director of Information Services, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, added, “Doctors today understand the reasons to automate, but rates of EMR adoption remain low. By separating the data from the application, MedCommons lets doctors control their practice and their practice technology - not the other way around. With MedCommons, referrals can be based on medical judgment with digital technology actually facilitating communication rather than adding another barrier.”

About MedCommons

MedCommons is a new company founded by experts in Internet-scale medical and financial software systems. Based in Watertown, MA, MedCommons offers the first nationally scalable standards-based network service that enables cross-enterprise and cross-system document sharing for both image and non-image based patient information. MedCommons has built an independent HIPAA-compliant network supporting secure transfer and viewing of private information over the Internet. The service combines native Continuity of Care Record (CCR-standard) support with an FDA-cleared thin-client implementation of Web DICOM for universal access to diagnostic imaging.

Contact Information

Judy Fallows

MedCommons

MedCommons

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